Road Trips 2012 & Real Estate

[Goal15]

Glad to hear that you are on the mend, my friend.

[Gene]

Thanks for the good wishes.

Achieving that balance between too much rest and too much activity is not easy. Since we had a guest this weekend, rest was easy because none of wanted to do much and we took a drive to Utah. At least we think we were in Utah because the roads past Glade Park are not well marked, but we saw a sign saying we had left Mesa Co., and there were only two ways to go and they both went to Utah. We saw some beautiful land and rock formations. Maybe I'll download some photos when I get to a motel tomorrow and use their free wifi. We know we would eventually have come to the Colorado River, but it is a long way down (half a mile or more) and the road was getting bumpy and my back did not enjoy that.

We go to Denver and the doctor gets to look at the incision and I hope he says I'm doing so well I can do more and more and more. I'll try to get up to 1 mile on the treadmill today. I feel better and better. One sign of healing is the itching around the incision which is driving me nuts. I put skin cream around the area and that helps a lot.

The house is still with us. A sloping second floor may be causing people to not want the house, so we are looking into what it would cost to fix that. This is a common issue with log houses and it never bothered us, but bothers prospective buyers. It is still a buyers' market.

Gene

[Gene]

Arrived in Denver to see the doctor. Feel good and I drove the first 125 miles.

Here are some photos from our ride the other day. We were in Utah—Grand County. The state line is about 20 miles from our house.

1. But first, downtown Glade Park, Colorado, 6 miles from our house. Downtown consists of a general store with a gas pump, a single wide as a post office, the fire station and fields of not much. This building is across from the general store. The tower is an observatory (it was leaning the last time I saw it, but seems have been straighted). The railroad bridge goes from the 2nd floor of the house to the garage.

2. The general store.

3. Two rather battered piñon trees and red rocks.

4. More red rocks—the dark outcropping sort of looks like a face though it would help to have been drinking for a while.

[Gene]

And more…

1. I think this was before we got to Utah.

2. Back in Colorado—a rally large alcove in the sandstone. We have a similar, but much smaller one, at the back of our property.

[Ag&Au]

Originally Posted by Gene

Arrived in Denver to see the doctor. Feel good and I drove the first 125 miles.

Here are some photos from our ride the other day. We were in Utah—Grand County. The state line is about 20 miles from our house.

1. But first, downtown Glade Park, Colorado, 6 miles from our house. Downtown consists of a general store with a gas pump, a single wide as a post office, the fire station and fields of not much. This building is across from the general store. The tower is an observatory (it was leaning the last time I saw it, but seems have been straighted). The railroad bridge goes from the 2nd floor of the house to the garage.

2. The general store.

3. Two rather battered piñon trees and red rocks.

4. More red rocks—The dark outcropping sort of looks like a face though it would help to have been drinking for a while.

I guess I drank too much. To me it looks like a black bear taking a dump while holding onto the cliff with his front paws.

Ken

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Ag&Au

I guess I drank too much. To me it looks like a black bear taking a dump while holding onto the cliff with his front paws.

Ken

I hadn't considered that. It will be forever known as Black Bear Rock. We can open a bar there so people can see the bear, but since it is in Utah, no drinking may be permitted.

Gene

[Ag&Au]

The real estate market seems very weird. You can't sell your house, and we can't find one to buy. Its too bad yours is in Colorado, the place we are trying to flee from. Every time we find a place that meets out desires, someone beats us to it by mere hours. Yet other houses that we are not ready to compromise our wish list for languish on the market for months.

I think part of the problem is that my daughter may be right. She says the midwesterners are moving to the pacific northwest in droves. After living there for 50 years, I never though I'd become one of those darned invading foreign hordes.

Ken

[kingfisher24]

we returned from a trip to Orcas Island on Aug 18th..put our house up for sale about Sept 1 and in a week we had a contract……

headed back to Orcas Island where we are finding great property for rent reasonable i might add... to try out the winter climate in the San Juans….even houses on the houses for sale are somewhat plentiful…mostly over priced but there are bargins and will be more in the immediate future as economic conditions worsen for the masses…..

[Mockinbrd]

Originally Posted by Ag&Au

I guess I drank too much. To me it looks like a black bear taking a dump while holding onto the cliff with his front paws.



Ken

I also see the bear and have not had a drink. I put the photo under high magnification and could see the bears face!

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by Mockinbrd

I also see the bear and have not had a drink. I put the photo under high magnification and could see the bears face!

I was UNDER the bear and needed a shower and a drink.

[Ag&Au]

Originally Posted by kingfisher24

we returned from a trip to Orcas Island on Aug 18th..put our house up for sale about Sept 1 and in a week we had a contract……

headed back to Orcas Island where we are finding great property for rent reasonable i might add... to try out the winter climate in the San Juans….even houses on the houses for sale are somewhat plentiful…mostly over priced but there are bargins and will be more in the immediate future as economic conditions worsen for the masses…..

Have you also checked out San Juan Island? It may be my imagination, but its has always seemer drier and more sunny. To me it is also a bit less tourist oriented.

Ken

[kingfisher24]

but gonna lease a place on orcas to start…..get our sea legs…and such

in the winter the pop of orcas is about 4500…san juan about half that…..

orcas is the most developed and i guess touristy…….

just a few pesos moore

we will see what we will see:

but this is the previous stream ….in ….missouri….looking at the buffalo national river valley in arkansas……

Geronimo……...

[ukulele2010]

I just have to say, I am a recent member of Airforums and I saw this thread show up because of a recent update. I probably started at page 42 - then found the content so compelling that I started at page 1 and have read all posts. Gene, you are a gifted writer, you write about the banal in such a compelling manner that I felt I had the read the entire thread. I mean that as a compliment, I could write about an exciting trip to sub-Saharan Africa and readers would find me boring - Gene writes about a driveway and I am riveted (pun intended).

[Lily&Me]

Originally Posted by ukulele2010

.... Gene, you are a gifted writer, you write about the banal in such a compelling manner that I felt I had the read the entire thread. I mean that as a compliment, I could write about an exciting trip to sub-Saharan Africa and readers would find me boring - Gene writes about a driveway and I am riveted (pun intended).

Yep, that's exactly it.

I think Gene secretly writes for J. Peterman.



Maggie

[Goal15]

Originally Posted by ukulele2010

I just have to say, I am a recent member of Airforums and I saw this thread show up because of a recent update. I probably started at page 42 - then found the content so compelling that I started at page 1 and have read all posts. Gene, you are a gifted writer, you write about the banal in such a compelling manner that I felt I had the read the entire thread. I mean that as a compliment, I could write about an exciting trip to sub-Saharan Africa and readers would find me boring - Gene writes about a driveway and I am riveted (pun intended).

He's known as the Bard of Colorado for a reason!!!!

[Gene]

Ken,
if you buy our house in Crawford, you will be about 300 miles closer to the northwest. You can make it to there in one long day. An air traffic controller can sleep a lot at the Grand Jct. airport. It is warmer and there is less snow than the Front Range.

Thanks for the compliments on my writing. I like to write, but I like so many things, I don't do much except here and letters to the editor of the local paper.

Gene

[slowmover]

Yet how well it works, that "I don't do much". You've kept us reading well past and beyond AS trailers used on vacations.

May recovery be swift.

Ross

[Gene]

Ross, glad to see you are still around. I haven't seen much from you lately, but I've been so busy that I don't look at the Forum that much, so I may have missed you. How is the trailer restoration going?

We finally met some of our neighbors yesterday when one had a party. Since everyone's house is on 5 to 40 acres, you never meet anyone on the street or across a fence line. Pretty much an ex-urban group, some retired, some working. What does ex-urban mean? Suburbanites who move further away from the suburbs and want more land, quiet and big houses and yet have easy access to a city. Public lands all around keep development low and that's nice too. Everyone was very friendly (or perhaps nosy in some cases). We'll see if we can transcend the political barriers that may exist since most people in such areas are far more conservative than we are—we have good friends in Crawford who are very conservative, but don't let that stop them from making friends with people who do not share their political views. We know people in the city who have been told not to let their neighbors know their politics or they will be shunned. It is unfortunate some people can't be open to the idea people are more than their political views.

It has rained again and that's not supposed to happen in the desert. A very wet August (for a desert) and a somewhat wet September. Maybe it will mean more snow soon, maybe not. Temps are cooler this week and we have the swamp cooler disconnected Tuesday. Just in time as nighttime temps are getting close to 40˚. I'd hate to have to get up on the roof to turn off the water before the swamp cooler guy comes. I'm much steadier on my feet than I was 3 weeks ago, but I still don't like ladders (if you saw the only one here long enough to get on the roof, you'd want to avoid it too—a very old wooden extension ladder I bought for $20 25 years ago). I have a better metal one at the Crawford house, but it is too long to take in a pickup and I haven't figured out how to get it here yet. At the party, I was able to stand for more than the minute or two of pre-operative time. It tires me, but I could stand for half a hour without much pain. And some friends stopped by before the party and told me I looked taller—because I wasn't bent forward. I told them I had a couple of extra vertebra installed so I could be six feet. Wish it were so. I was taller than most people when I was 20, but those young people keep getting taller and now I'm just average. I used to be able to spot Barb in a crowd because she was the tallest woman around, but that's no longer so either. Maybe I'll get us both some extra vertebra later. Does Amazon sell them? In the meantime, I am encouraged by the fact Americans are no longer the tallest people in the world—it must be all that junk food.

And the good news includes that fact someone spent a couple of hours looking at the Crawford house yesterday. After I heard from our exuberant realtor, I called the guy and we talked for quite a while about how the house was built, what was included and what wasn't and about the slope in the floor. He was more curious than concerned about the floor and I explained the dynamics of log house shrinkage to him. We are trying to keep from dancing around yelling and screaming "this guy may be the one! When do we get an offer?" The emotional roller coaster can't be avoided, but we've had enough of this ride and we don't want to buy another ticket. With Colorado having a short selling season, we've sort of given up for this year. The contractors we've contacted about the floor either haven't responded or don't have the time to work on it. So many contractors left western Colorado during the recession, the remaining ones are swamped. Getting a small job done is very difficult. If it doesn't sell soon, I may have to do the job and I don't really want to go back there and work on more things. We have moved our plants, are packing up our dishes, moved the satellite system, taken most of our clothes, moved a lot of furniture and haven't slept there since before my surgery. As much as we loved that house, we are disconnected from it now and I'm basically done with it. That's feels strange because it is a very nice place, but we've moved on.

Meanwhile I'm staring at our new front door leaning against the wall in the living room. I want to install it, but I need to heal more. A few more weeks. Then I get to do door frame surgery. I didn't order new exterior molding ("brick mold" which is neither brick nor moldy, but a wooden trim around the door casing on the outside), so I have to separate the existing brick mold from the door casing ("jamb") by cutting the nails and caulk seal, cutting up the old casing to get it out and sliding in the new door and casing and nailing it to the studs. I put a bead of caulk on the casing to seal it to the brick mold, caulk the space between the new casing and studs, make sure the whole thing is level and plumb, install the door hardware and when the caulk dries, run a bead in any spaces left open, paint the exterior molding and enjoy a new door. This will be the 11th door we have changed or added. By the time we're finished with doors, we'll know how to do it. We learned that when you install interior doors in the dry months, you have to consider what happens when you turn on the swamp cooler. I had the new doors working perfectly with a 1/8-3/16" gap between the casing and the door. I was very proud of my skills. Then we turned on the swamp cooler and the humidity went up. The doors started sticking as they and the casings expanded. I fixed some of them, more to go. Lesson learned. Gap will be 1/4" during winter from now on. I'll do a better job of sealing bare wood at the top and bottom. Now that Barb has been working actively on these things with me, she is more understanding when things go badly. She said "why not wait until winter? They'll be fine." My response was to ask her to get the wood chisels and mallet so I could cut the hinges deeper into the casing. Even though most of the doors are hardly ever closed, especially in summer, I want them to close right.

I look at the trailer and want to travel. If the house sells, next year we'll have to get used to traveling again. I have countless trips in my brain waiting to get out. Another one from N. Cal. to the northwest and maybe Vancouver Is., the River Road, Newfoundland, Alaska and northern Canada, the Gulf Coast, New England and upstate NY—that's only a start. I think it has been almost 2 years since we went to the northwest, so a few short trips while we get used to the trailer again. We do go to NM in a 2+ weeks, but with the pickup only—my father-in-law's younger brother's 80th birthday. We'll pick up my in-laws (they at 89 don't want to drive that far anymore) and take them and bring them back. I'm glad to do that for them since they have always been so nice to me even though I have little interest in going to this party.

Time to hit the treadmill and strengthen my flabby legs again. I don't like exercise, but if it won't make me 6' tall, otherwise it helps tremendously with quality of life. Schwarzenegger watch out—I'll be coming for you.

Gene

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, WOW; Just the fact that you were able to type that much shows that you are healing well. Hope that guy makes an acceptable offer and you finally sell your house. We were so comfortable with our old house of 33 years, but it was soon forgotten after we finally moved. Every day here is like a vacation, so nice. I have to take my "Good Guy Pills" every day. The people are nice here, not like down there where you need to be mean to survive. We went to the Mall and Lee was walking to my left, but behind me. Some big guy was leaving the Mall, looking at his cell phone, and walking very close to my left, so I moved right in front of him to make him move over, so he wouldn't run into my wife. Lee got upset because I did that. I didn't know or see that Lee was farther behind me and moved to my right side. Anyway, [justification] this big guy was walking toward us and looking at his cell phone and I automatically went into protection mode. Even though our house is/was new, we still had to do lots of things to it. Mostly little fixes. Still have small list of things to do. Today I pulled my trailer forward and washed a year's worth of junk off of it. Now I'm tired. Also been trying to find a new truck, at a good price. Most important thing is that the truck must have Max Tow Package. This will give us trailer mirrors and a proper payload. I told the sales people that if the truck has a lower tow rating and a lower payload than my Lincoln, then it's not worth buying. Why would I even want a truck that can't do the same or better than my Lincoln? One sales person told me that there wasn't a single F-150 on the lot that couldn't tow 7,200 lbs. [after I told him that my trailer was 6,300 lbs] My Lincoln is rated at 8,900 lbs. I saw a payload sticker in the door of one truck that was for 1,065 lbs. My Lincoln can carry 1,600 lbs. The search is still on. I may have to accept something a little bit different, but not much. Hoping to find a good deal on a 2014 model.

[Gene]

Bob,

Typing is easier than working. I get tired of sitting around reading and watching TV, so I look for low impact things to do. Writing is one of those.

Looks like you're settling in to your new home. I hope you get used to nice people. I know how hard that can be coming from NYC—I used to think that when someone was nice to me it meant he wanted something from me. When I first moved to Colorado and someone I'd never seen before said "hello" to me on the sidewalk, I was shocked. Of course, with the influx of people to Colorado in those days, people saying "hello" to strangers soon stopped. On back roads, people still wave as you pass each other on the road. Now I miss those sidewalk "hellos", though I can go into a supermarket and have the employees say "hello", but I know they do that only because the manager told them to.

A Tundra will meet your requirements, but I know you are a Ford guy. How do you feel about the EcoBoost trucks? They seem to be working well for people, although I can't ever see myself buying a Ford (I haven't gotten over that '56 Mercury).

Gene